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Carries has mentioned in the past that her mother feels The Reading Lesson is a very solid program that anyone would be able to use to teach a child to read. I just bought it at a used curriculum sale. I am also borrowing Reading Made Easy from a friend to compare them. RME has much more instruction and The Reading Lesson doesn't really have any instruction. Am I missing something? It seems like just a lot of words and sounds to read with a some stories within. There is a tad of instruction here and there but not much. It definitely looks simple - but is it too simple? I just haven't seen a reading program/book with so little teacher instruction.

My friend really recommends Reading Made Easy (which I am borrowing to look at). It definitely has teacher instructions but not sure if it's what I am looking for either.

I used the Reading Lesson with my 2nd DD and you are right, there is very little instruction, teacher script, or anything like that in it. It is, sit down on the couch with your child and have them read/help them read the sounds, blends, words, and then stories. I had used 100 Easy Lessons before and the style was very similar but The Reading Lesson is slower and more thorough. It is so easy to use, and enjoyable for you are just sitting on the couch reading together. It gives the child quick success in reading simple words and builds their confidence. I think the lessons are just the right amount (well you do as much as you think your child needs/can do). There are definitely plenty of sounds it does not cover, it is not an exhaustive phonics program. But my DD has learned many of the others by just reading with me and having me help her with things she doesn't know. Like "kn" in knife and know. So I think it is very effective.

RME is obviously also recommended and probably very effective, but I don't know much about it. Feel free to share your thoughts as you get the chance to look it over.

We have used both programs and I liked Reading Made Easy better. That said, I think Carrie and Julie and many others on this board used The Reading Lesson and love it. In this link, people discuss their preferences and I posted about why I liked RME better:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11356&hilit=+readin ... asy#p82358

It's a bit of a rant because I was feeling frustrated with TRL, and shortly after writing that post I switched my second daughter from TRL (she had done three quarters of it) to RME. Much later, after completing RME she was still having a lot of trouble reading and making a lot of incorrect guesses on words. I used ABeCeDarian Reading Program Level B with her last year and that has done the trick. I think RME was a great start, but for this child (who had more trouble learning to read than my others) she needed more instruction before she could tackle the emerging readers. My oldest did very well with just RME.

Perhaps we would have liked TRL better if I had tried it with one of my other children. With my youngest we have also done RME followed by ABeCeDarian level B. He is doing great & starting the ERs now (while continuing with ABeCeDarian). So all three of my children used RME, and it worked well for us. One drawback I noticed with RME is that when you have finished the book and no longer use the color coding, such as black "a" to show long "a" and a gray "a" for short "a" for instance, my kids have not been good at picking up on cues in the word (such as an "e" at the end) to help them figure out which sound to say. ABeCeDarian has helped with that.

What I like about both RME and TRL is that they are simple and manageable for young children, unlike some of the other programs out there.
HTH